Forging friendships across the generations

YOUNG and old have come together in a pioneering scheme to strengthen community ties.

Year 6 pupils at Marine Park Primary, South Shields, have been spending time with a group of elderly dementia sufferers in Sunderland.

The scheme – nicknamed the Emmelina Waterbucket project by residents at the Princess House care home at Roker, Sunderland – is the idea of North East arts company Dry Water, which specialises in inter-generational events, using music and dance to forge friendship bonds.

Lead artist Paula Turner, said: “Adults can be concerned or anxious when people living with dementia repeat themselves or jump from place to place in their conversations, but children aren’t fazed by it at all. The project is enabling a wonderful creative dialogue to take place between the children and the elders, which means that everyone is working free from labels and exploring their innate creative capacities to the full.”